Revolutionary Leaders
When does working for social change become revolution? In this lesson, accompanied by a the film clip adapted from ‘The Storm that Swept Mexico’, students will study key figures from the Mexican Revolution, including Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, and discuss what motivated them to take action and the broad range of ways that individuals stand up for their principles and beliefs. Students will also consider how contemporary revolutionaries are harnessing the power of digital media to achieve their goals and will develop and implement their own strategies to work for social change.

Revolutionary Women
Women constitute half of the world’s population yet their contributions to major social, cultural and political events are often overlooked, misunderstood, misrepresented, or undocumented. In this lesson accompanied by a film clip adapted from ‘The Storm that Swept Mexico’, students will discover why women’s participation was crucial to the Mexican Revolution, and how women’s ability to contribute to society changed during the revolutionary period. Through the multimedia extensions, students will explore how gender shapes our understanding of history and continues to impact expectations and opportunities for individuals in the present.

Revolutionary Art
Following the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican government supported the development of a new school of art to break with the dominance of the European tradition. This new movement sought to create a “real” Mexican art that would strengthen and reaffirm Mexican identity and the values of the Revolution. The Mexican Muralist movement was born as a means to provide a visual narrative of the post-Revolutionary vision of Mexican history and was driven by the ideal that art should be “by the public, for the public.” In this lesson accompanied by a film clip from the documentary ‘The Storm that Swept Mexico’, students will examine the use of art as historical narrative and social commentary, and create a mural inspired by the Mexican Muralist movement.

The Storm That Swept Mexico tells the epic story of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Fueled by the Mexican people’s growing dissatisfaction with an elitist ruling regime, the revolution was led by two of the most intriguing and mythic figures in 20th century history — Emiliano Zapata and Francisco “Pancho” Villa. At stake was Mexico”s ability to claim its own natural resources, establish long-term democracy and re-define its identity. Capturing the color, drama, intrigue and tragedy of the era, The Storm That SweptMexico also explores how the Mexican revolution not only changed the course of Mexican history, transforming economic and political power within the nation, but also profoundly impacted the relationships between Mexico, the U.S. and the rest of the world. The first hour, “The Tiger is Unleashed,” charts the struggle by Francisco I. Madero and his followers to end the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, and traces the emergence of the remarkable populist heroes Zapata and Villa. The second hour, “The Legacy,” examines international influence on the revolution as well as Mexico’s flourishing cultural revolution. More than ten years in the making and featuring interviews with a variety of scholars, veterans of the Revolution and a trove of film footage virtually unseen in close to a century, The Storm That Swept Mexico is a fascinating exploration of the beliefs and conditions that led to the revolution, influenced the course of the conflict, and determined its consequences over the century that followed.

The Storm That Swept Mexico is a co-production of Paradigm Productions, Inc. and the Independent Television Services (ITVS) in association with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB). Major funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and The San Francisco Foundation.

As America’s largest classroom, teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS LearningMedia, a partnership of PBS and WGBH Educational Foundation, is a free media-on-demand service offering educators access to the best of public media and delivers research-based, classroom-ready digital learning experiences to engage students in exploring curriculum concepts that align with National and Common Core State Standards. Nationwide, more than 1.4 million teachers have registered access to more than 35,000 digital resources available through PBS LearningMedia.

Latino Public Broadcasting is the leader of the development, production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people, or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. These programs are produced for dissemination to the public broadcasting stations and other public telecommunication entities. LPB provides a voice to the diverse Latino community on public media throughout the United States.